Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Today, on the fifth Sunday of Eastertide, we celebrate rogation Sunday, a day we focus our prayers to God in a particular way. We give thanks for the land God has blessed us with and all that it provides, and we ask that our labors among the fields and forests continue to bear fruit.
It’s hard not to miss that things are growing this year. Spring seems to have come with a vengeance. Just looking at the plants in front of my house, the rose bushes, the hydrangea, our little herb garden—they seem to need no encouragement. In fact, some unexpected, even bizarre things have been growing lately. Earlier this week, I sopped by Christ Church in downtown Little Rock to find the church staff curiously gazing at something in the parking lot. So, I joined the group of gawkers. There in the flower bed on the edge of the lot was a bright, orange growth rising out of the mulch. It was several inches high, and looked spongy and…otherworldly, with green-tipped tendrils reaching up at us.
Much debate ensued about the nature of this thing. Our best guess at first was that it was some kind of slime mold. We took a photo and sent it to a Christ Church parishioner who was a geologist, who happened to know a fungus expert. This is what the expert said of the thing:
“If I was a religious person, which I am not, I would wonder why a deity would allow such fungi to grow on church property. The fungus in question is a stink horn. Stink horns, as the name suggests, give off a foul odor to attract flies–which land on the top of the fungus long enough to think, ‘where is the (rotten) beef’, before realizing they have been fooled.”
Before I get to today’s Scripture I want to make sure that you come away from this story with the right message. The lesson is not that life at Christ Church in Little Rock stinks. Rather, if were were to add a twist of theological reflection, it’s that God’s natural world is full of surprises, much like the life of a Christian. Where God is concerned, there is no such thing as predictability and boredom, even in a church parking lot on a Tuesday.
There are some big surprises in today’s story from the Book of Acts. The first surprise is that on the road from Jerusalem down to Gaza Philip encounters an Ethiopian eunuch reading aloud from the Book of Isaiah. The second surprise is that the eunuch, a cultural outcast, was returning from worship at the temple in Jerusalem. Given his social status, he would not have been allowed to enter the assembly there, but he had gone anyway to worship. The third surprise is that the eunuch invites Philip into his chariot to help him understand the scriptures. The fourth surprise is that they eventually talk about Jesus of Nazareth, and the eunuch asks to be baptized, which Philip does on the fly by the side of the road.
There is an obvious bit of good news here. One who had experienced exclusion as an unclean foreigner has now been welcomed fully into the body of Christ. It’s a story of how Christianity as a young religious movement was reaching beyond its Jewish roots and including gentiles. Christ would not have turned the eunuch away, and Philip follows suit.
It might sound trite to say that God is a God of surprises, and we never know where we will be lead. But it’s trite because it’s true. Philip had no idea he would be called upon to baptize a stranger, much less a social outcast on a lonely wilderness road. However, Philip was a disciple with first hand experience of Jesus’ methods and knew that paying close attention to the twists and turns in life would often reveal the Sprit at work. Jesus was fond of reminding his disciples to “keep awake.”
It’s an honor to be with you here at St. Peter’s this morning, on this rogation Sunday. You and St. Albans’ are the two congregations in this diocese most directly connected to the land. Here, a big rain means more than having to save your garbage can from floating down the street; precipitation amounts have a direct economic impact on your families and communities. You, more than most, are attuned to meteorological surprises. Surprises are consequential. This is good practice for the Christian life–God’s surprises are consequential too.
Just as God surprised Philip by crossing his path with the Ethiopian eunuch, God surprises us by placing new people and circumstances in our way all the time. Each surprise is an opportunity to seek the Spirit’s will and encourage the good news to blossom. On some days we may be Philip in this story, given the privilege of showing Christ to someone in need of God. At other times, we may be the traveling Ethiopian–a stranger in a strange land–blessed by the godly generosity and insight of another.
A bit on the word, “rogation.” It comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning “to ask.” And so, this day, I propose that we ask not only for favorable weather and fertile soil, but also to be continually surprised by God, to be attuned to those seemingly chance encounters that have the potential to bear fruit in our lives and those of others. We ask for surprises because sometimes–most times–that is how we come to see and know God.
On this Rogation Sunday we thank God for this land on which this Church stands and this body of Christ calls home. And we pray that the physical seeds and the seeds of love that have been planted here will grow and bear fruit. I guarantee there will be surprises along the way. Where God is concerned, there is no such thing as predictability and boredom, in church parking lots on Tuesdays, on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, and in the lives of those who seek out Christ and proclaim the good news.
Easter 5, Year B